


Fictober Shorts: Run Away

by Lyrishadow



Series: Fictober 2020 Shorts [10]
Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-19
Updated: 2020-10-19
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:21:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27100372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lyrishadow/pseuds/Lyrishadow
Summary: Prompt 10: “All I ever wanted”Fandom: Mass EffectTitle: Run AwayPairing: Xara ShepardRating: TWarnings/Tags: some mention of abuse
Relationships: Kaidan Alenko/Female Shepard
Series: Fictober 2020 Shorts [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1977133
Kudos: 2





	Fictober Shorts: Run Away

“Lieutenant,” Xara said, as they returned to the Normandy “A word in my office please.”  
“ Aye aye, Ma’am.” Kaidan nodded.  
“Joker set a course for Argus Rho lets sort that out.”  
“Yes ma’am”  
Xara was relieved when Kaidan knocked on her door a few minutes after she got in, she had been pacing. Nervous for the conversation she needed to have.  
“Enter.”  
“Ma’am,” Kaidan said hesitating. After all, her office was also her quarters.  
“I need to have a private conversation. Take a seat.” she gestured to the table and chairs. “And for the love of all things, stop calling me ma’ am when it is just us.”  
“Sorry Shepard.” Kaidan tried “It’s not that I don’t want to.. “ he paused and she nodded she got it.  
“No pressure Kaidan, I just wanted to talk to you about what happened with the guy in the wards. Finch.” Xara spun around from where she had been pacing nervously and sat down on her chair.  
“You don’t need to do this Shepard.” Kaidan pointed out “It isn’t in your official records, and you don’t need to explain yourself to me.”  
“Yes. Yes, I do... Kaidan you… “ Xara sighed and shook her head “you are the highlight of this whole damn mess.”  
“Thanks.” Kaidan blushed and settled back in his chair. “Alright Shepard I get it, so what is it you want to tell me?”  
“All I ever wanted as a kid.” Xara stared at the datapad on her table “was to belong to somewhere, my step-father kicked me out of the house when I was six.”  
“Six? That’s… Shepard, I’m sorry.”  
“My mum died when I was five so I had a year to get my grieving done;, my stepfather wanted to remarry and I was liability so I was kicked out.” Xara exhaled “I think everyone except Anderson assumes I was born and raised on the streets, but no I had to learn at a young age.”  
“At least you have that resourceful streak.” Kaidan encouraged.  
“Yeah, I managed to survive the first week on scraps from restaurant bins, a little food from strangers, and that kind of thing.”  
“We used to do that, I took it for granted, giving food to the kids who were begging, never considered they were homeless.” Kaidan folded his hands “My parents were very careful though, they suggested there was a gang who would send beggars to collect money for them.”  
“It is the truth, we used to do that,” Xara confirmed.  
“We?”  
“Tenth Street Reds. You might have seen TSR plastered on every surface we could get to with spray paint, and some we were not meant to.”  
“Oh.” Kaidan shifted “I guess we didn’t grow up far apart then.”  
“No, I guess we didn’t but our paths did not cross, don’t worry.” Xara replied, “I got really good at the gang stuff, ended up leading a group for a while.”  
“Oh.”  
“Yeah oh, that guy had stuff on me.” Xara sighed daring to glance at Kaidan - at least he hadn’t left yet. “I kept meticulous records of our trade.”  
“Trade?”  
"Drugs, kidnapping, extortion, and kidnapping to name a few."  
"Shepard none of that sounds like you?"  
"I.." Xara wiped her hand over her face. Finally, she looked up at Kaidan. "It was me, how we survived. You start at the bottom and work your way up."  
"How…what did they get a six-year-old to do?"  
Xara shook her head. Lowering her eyes again, the sense of shame overwhelming. This time in her life had been difficult and there were things she still felt she couldn’t tell him.  
"Shepard…" something in Kaidan’s voice called her out of it. She dared to look up.  
" I don't tell anyone this stuff." She said trying to not run from the room, afraid that Kaidan was going to view her the way every other potential boyfriend had. Damaged, broken, a waste of time but worth calling for trouble.  
"I understand Shepard." Kaidan was still there. Still sitting in his chair facing her, now leaning forward, listening.  
“All the kids get initiated at around six, it isn’t legal but then nor is running spice.” she shrugged “ They teach you to steal, pick locks, look like anything but what you are. They give you a bed and food if you are lucky, they held all the power though so if they said jump you jumped.”  
“ So my friend from the wards…”  
“ He threatened you.” Kaidan replied, “You are a long way from being one of them.”  
“ I hope so.” Xara still not convinced “They still have the paper trail. It’s what Finch said they had on me.”  
“ Your history though .. it is public?”  
“ Some of it.” she looked away again, damn this was hard “ but he’s right the gang’s values started shifting when the First Contact War ended. I was not the .. the best me.”  
“Shepard,” Kaidan stood and walked around the table with a half-smile. “ There isn’t a single person in this galaxy who hasn’t made mistakes.”  
“It seems big…”  
“ Unlike the idiot who accosted you though, there is proof you have changed - the blitz, the fact that we have Wrex, Garrus, Tali, and Liara on our crew, that you go around and talk to everyone..”  
“ Oh. You have seen that,”  
“ Yeah, listen closely Shepard, I am only going to say this reg breaking things once: I love that you have grown and changed over time, it makes the future with you an exciting thing; it makes me think we are going to pull this off and defeat Saren.”  
“Thank you.” Xara stood slowly as Kaidan grinned.  
“ And now I should go before I say or do something that really will break regs. I do actually want to but…”  
“ Dismissed” Xara was smiling though as she said it, the stress and worry had left her shoulders when Kaidan had said he loved her.


End file.
